Banker smackdown: Capuano unloads on Wall Street execs

The highlight of yesterday’s bank spank before the House Financial Services Committee was this rant from Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. While he was clearly playing to the public, it was political theater with some salient points.

Capuano raised one good question, regarding the use of Enronesque special investment vehicles, which the bankers wouldn’t have answered, even if he’d given them the chance: "How can possibly any regulated bank have something on its books that’s totally unregulated that for all intents and purposes does the same thing the bank does?"

You also gotta love this: "You come to us today on your bicycles, after buying Girl Scout cookies and helping out Mother Theresa, telling us `we’re sorry, we didn’t mean it, we won’t do it again. Trust us.’ Well, I have some people in my constituency that actually robbed some of your banks, and they say the same thing."

All of which led up to the quote that’s appeared in almost every story about the hearings: "America doesn’t trust you anymore."

The bankers, of course, sat stone-faced as Capuano lashed on. It was a cathartic rant on behalf of frustrated taxpayers, and while it won’t help resolve the crisis, Capuano said what a lot of Americans wanted to say if they had gotten all those bank execs at one table.